Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: Russia – Borscht for the Masses

It’s time for the final game in the Assassin’s Creed Chronicles series. We are now in Russia, and we will get to stick our bayonet into both proto-commies and Brotherhood members. A welcome change, indeed. Unfortunately, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: Russia is probably the worst of the lot, despite it having the coolest setting, and probably the best narrative. It starts out relatively well, but then it embraces all the painful mechanics of the other titles in the series, and turns it up to eleven.

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Primal Planet – Demo Impressions

Primal Planet came as a bit of a surprise, considering I found it by pure luck when lazily browsing on Steam, and how much the presentation and gameplay speaks to me. Being a child of the 80s and 90s, dinosaurs were everything, and what is better than playing a metroidvania set during the dinosaur age to still that distant urge for nostalgia. The demo is a hefty one that really lets you dig into the mechanics, and overall, it’s well-designed, with a fun twist on the gameplay: you are not facing the jungle beasts alone!

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Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream – Demo Impressions

My next title on the Steam NextFest repertoire is Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream. It’s a beautiful stealth game viewed from an isometric viewpoint. The premise and setting reminds me of A Plague Tale: Requiem, but with a brother sidekick that isn’t the bearer of rat demons – yet. The visuals and the story are very charming, and detailed. But what about the gameplay?

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Hell is Us – Demo Impressions

This is a wild one. I downloaded the Hell is Us demo on a whim, and I’m really glad I did. At the most basic, you can say it’s some kind of Dark Souls-lite, at least regarding the fighting. What makes Hell is Us more than it looks is the very mysterious setting that I can best describe as something between the books Roadside Picnic, and the Southern Reach Trilogy. I found the atmosphere thick and weird, with a dark, foreboding tone that engulfs the whole experience in this strange land.

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Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India – Punjab Adventures

The Assassin’s Creed Chronicles continues with Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India. While it’s a better game on a technical, story and gameplay level, I’m not sure if I appreciated the added difficulty in the form of assassination immune units, multiple timed events, and forced stealth segments. Specifically the last one, which I think ruined a unique aspect of Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China. The mechanic that lets you continue despite your failures, but punishes you with a lower score. Now, that is still a thing, yet, way too many levels suffer from insta-restart if you make the tiniest mistake.

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